Photography, Artsy Things, and Life on the Farm

Art Dump + Sketchbook Tour!

YAYYYYY, another art post! Since my last sketchbook post in June, I’ve basically finished one sketchbook plus worked on a couple of others I have. I’ve made SO MUCH ART since the last post that it would take far too long to show you individual pictures of all of it – so I made a little sketchbook flip-through video for you guys to cut down on space needed. 🙂

I hope you enjoy browsing through this art and maybe get some inspiration for your own!

We shall start with my “messy” sketchbook, the one I just finished. I’m going to show you the whole thing by video in a moment, but first I wanted to highlight a couple of my favorite pages. 🙂

I drew the left page while listening to Mom read a Narnia book aloud to us one evening, a long while ago. I painted the right page shortly after changing my profile picture, which I really need to do again… I think the painting turned out cute, if more cartoony than accurate.

Ahh, this spread makes me happy! Yellow! Flowers! Cheefulness! I really like the style of the gouache portrait I did on the left. The right was practice for a commission.

Ooh, this one makes me hungry. 😛 I tried a fun exercise of cutting half a picture from a magazine and painting in the rest. I could have done better if I kept layering the watercolor, but I kind of got tired of it after a while, so. XD I’m still pleased with how it turned out, and I want to try one again!

This isn’t the best eye I’ve ever drawn/painted, but I still like it. Plus, it would hardly be an art post without an eye drawing in it, right? (If you’re new here… I LOVE drawing eyes!)

I think this spread goes together so nicely! I love the limited color scheme and clean yet whimsical line art.

I like the painting on the left a lot better now than I did when I painted it, surprisingly. I felt in the mood to draw something unique, so I made a hand holding a moon-waterfall. 😛 Also I used some of the flowers on the left for my newest envelope set which you can see here, on my Etsy shop!

Now THIS is different. O.o I practically NEVER make collage art, so I decided to try it… and had SO much fun doing so! It’s pretty relaxing to just throw stuff at the page, actually. 😛

I’ve been playing around with different styles lately; this was one of them. Isn’t she cute?

Ooh, these pages are two of my favorites! I especially like the faces with watercolor behind them. I used reference pictures for those, which is the main reason they look half-decent. :’D

Have some fun fall doodles and lettering. I made these for an e-magazine I contribute to.

This isn’t a finished piece, but it’s a lovely sketchbook page, in my opinion! I want to get better at filling up pages like this and making them a little more cohesive. Instead of stopping when I don’t like a picture and moving onto a new page, it often works to just keep adding to it! Which girl is your favorite? I love the girl in the clouds. 🙂

Okay! Now for the video, which shows allll of my sketchbook – the good, the bad, and the ugly. 😛 Also apologies for the VERY unprofessional manner in which I executed this… you have no idea how much of a struggle it was to take a video by myself without a working tripod. :[] :’D I really just need to order a new one so I can take better videos.

Now for some small peeks into other sketchbook I’m using. I’m pretty pleased with this piece! It’s the first page in my new sketchbook I got to replace the one I finished. This is my first time trying an Arteza product and I really like it so far! Would you guys be interested in seeing a sketchbook/paper review post??

This is part of the lesson plan for my younger art class tomorrow. I love how 3D and eye-popping it looks. 😛 (The art classes I’m teaching are going well so far, by the way! Thank you all SO much for your sweet encouragement and prayers. <3)

And this is part of the lesson plan for the older art class. 🙂 Creating transparent layers in watercolor is so much fun, and I love the results!

I got this Illo sketchbook to use for more finished pieces, back before I completed my old sketchbook. Since the cover was plain black, I decided to paint it with acrylics to make it more inspiring. 🙂 Illo featured it on their Instagram page which made me SO excited! 😀

Here’s the first spread of my Illo sketchbook. I was inspired by one of the photos from this post for the girl and the balloon. I love this style of delicate line art with watercolor.

Bleh, I do NOT like the mountain page, mostly because it’s so distracting from the self-portrait on the right. *sigh* Ah well, that’s the way art goes. I do like the portrait, though! It’s at least slightly more accurate than the first one in the post. 😉

GAAAAAH I LOVE THESE! I only recently purchased some Posca pens, and I discovered that they work amazingly on the super smooth and thick Illo paper. Which of these illustrations is your favorite? I like them both, but I did the right one for a contest and got featured, so I’m maybe a little prouder of that one. 😛

Lastly, two pieces from my toned paper journal. I adore how these water drops turned out! (Yes, they are real drawings. 😛 ) They’re actually a lot easier to make than they look! Check out my Instagram (@thecolorboxstudio) to see a video.

We’ll end with one of my favorite pieces from this post! I love the simple, illustrative style and limited color palette with the toned paper. And all that outlining with white gel pen made me so happy. :’D

ALSO! This is the sketchbook I’m using for Inktober this year! If you haven’t heard of Inktober, click here to learn more. It’s basically just a list of daily art prompts for October, except it’s much more hyped-up in the art community, kind of like NaNoWriMo among writers. I’ll definitely do an Inktober post at the end of this month when I’ve finished it!

And that, my friends, is a sampling of the recent art I’ve done! Check out my Etsy shop and my art Instagram (@thecolorboxstudio) to see more art. Feel free to drop art suggestions for next time in the comments, and tell me…

What pieces of art did you like best? Are you doing Inktober? Would you like to see a sketchbook review/recommendations post?

Your artwork is absolutely incredible! Some of my favorites from this post are your monocolor blue forest, your landscape in the front of your Arteza sketchbook (I’d love to see a review), and your Posca pen illustrations! Thanks for sharing ❤

AHHHHHHH ART HOW I LOVE THESE POSTS. Those water droplets are simply mind blowing, my friend. And I love the one of me ( 😉) and the balloon art you’re teaching (teach me!) and HELP everything else. Also the faces with watercolor behind them. And the sandwich.

D’awww! How are you so sweet?? ❤ (But seriously, it's because I absolutely LOVE art and have been making it for nineteen years – no one can help but improve with that much practice!)
HA HA! That made me smile. 🙂 THANKS, MARY!

YAY!!! IT’S OTHER ONE OF ALLISON’S ART DUMPS!!!! ahh, I love these posts, every piece was wonderful! I love the mountain artwork just before the 3d art (which was also epic), plus the really realistic water droplets and the ones done with the porca pens… gahhh, they’re all so good 👏👏👏

I’m always so happy when you post an art dump, because they’re all so pretty. 😛 I don’t think I have a favorite, though I love all the ones with the balloons…
Guess what? I just got some gouache! I’m so excited to use it, though I have no idea how. 😛

Aww, I’m always so happy when they make people happy! 😛 Ooh, thanks! EEEP REALLY? That’s so exciting; I love gouache! I recommend looking up tutorials on YouTube. You can seriously learn so much that way. I recommend Mira Byler and Makoccino’s channels. 🙂

I love all of these! You’re such a talented artist! I like the one of your profile picture. Honestly I can’t tell which half of the sandwich is a picture, and which is watercolor. Your sketchbooks are awesome, you should post more art tutorials!

Whoa the sandwich one was so cool!!!!!!! I didn’t even realize it wasn’t all a magazine page at first. XD I can’t believe you did that with watercolor, it looks so realistic! I also think the black swirly rose in your sketchbook looks so pretty too! Your art posts are always my favorite! 😀

Wow, very nice, Allison! That half-drawing of the sandwich is really good. I was looking at the photo and couldn’t figure out what was going on there, because I thought it was all one drawing, but then I read the explanation. 🙂
Also, that is so cool that a brand featured you on their Instagram! wow!
Finally, that water droplet drawing is unbelievable! How did you make them jump off the page like that? I can still hardly believe that it’s all a flat surface…
I certainly don’t have time to do Inktober, but this term I have drawing class, so I’ve been creating plenty drawings, mostly in charcoal. Hopefully I’ll remember to send you photos of them sometime soon. 🙂

Thanks so much, Sassafras! 😀 Heh, well “confusing” for that particular drawing is good, I suppose. 😛
Yeah, I was excited! 😀
Ahh, thank you! Part of the secret is simply to use toned paper – that way the highlights look brighter and the midtones show through in a way they don’t normally on white paper.
Ooh, that’s exciting! I look forward to seeing your charcoal art. 🙂 🙂

These are so great! I love the girl with the balloons! I run a hobby blog where I try a bunch of new activities/blogs/hobbies. My most recent post is a glimpse into my sketchbook. I hope you’ll check it out!

But, can I just say, that even tough I just recently looked at this, as SOON as I saw that drawing you did, I was like, is that Aria, it is, it is!!!!!! Then you said that it was so I was going: I knew it, I am right! Its a great drawing by the way!!!!
really liked all your other drawings toooo but that, tops it….they are all beautiful

Oh, my word! Your water drops looked so lifelike! I thought they were real! Also, which side of the sandwich is the part you cut out from the magazine? I honestly can’t tell!! Your art looks so amazing!!

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